Doctors Remove Baby Skeleton Left Inside Mother for 38 Years

Sonogram showing an ectopic pregnancy. The embryo sac in yellow is located outside the uterus in pink.Getty Images

An Indian woman, Jyoti Kumar, from Central India has reportedly had the world's longest ectopic pregnancy, after a baby skeleton was removed from her abdomen after 38 years.

At the age of 24, Kumar was told that her baby was growing outside her womb and that there was little chance of the baby's survival.

Fearful of the surgery, Kumar fled from the hospital and went to a small clinic to find treatment to cure her abdominal pain caused by the ectopic pregnancy. Once the pain subsided, Kumar assumed there was no further reason to worry.

It was only after the patient underwent an MRI, that we could make out that the mass was in fact a child's skeleton.

After visiting Dr. Mohammad Yunus Shah and his team of experts at the NKP Salve Institute of Medical Sciences, in the central Indian city of Nagpur, it was revealed that she was still carrying her unborn child.

Dr. Shah confirmed the finding saying: "She said the pain had been consistent over the last two months and we found a lump on the lower right side of her abdomen, and feared it was cancer. A CT scan then revealed that the lump was made of hard, calcified matter.

"But it was only after the patient underwent an MRI, that we could make out that the mass was in fact a child's skeleton."

"The amniotic fluid that protects the foetus might have been absorbed and the soft tissues liquefied over time with only a bag of bones with some fluid remaining," said Dr. Shah.

Dr. Shah revealed that medical literature on similar cases has revealed that there has only been one other reported case of a Belgian woman who had remains from an ectopic pregnancy removed after 18 years.

"We believe this could be the longest case on record at 38 years," added Dr. Shah.